History of monopoly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The original meaning of the word monopoly comes from Greek as a compound of two words: "mono", which means "single" or "one", and "polein", meaning "to sell".[1] This word was defined as an exclusive legal right of sale covered by the government usually ensured by patent or license. In the seventeenth century, Sir Edward Coke defined a monopoly as an "allowance by the King to any person or corporation for the sole buying, selling, making, working or using anything, whereby any person or corporation are sought to be restrained of any freedom or liberty that they had before."[2] In the eighteenth century, monopoly was defined by Samuel Johnson as the "exclusive privilege of selling anything."[3] In the course of time monopoly has come to be interpreted as a private accumulation of economic power or an entity that has total or near-total control of a market.[4]
Monopolies became socially significant for the first time in early seventeenth-century England under the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I, who sold monopolistic licenses for their own enrichment.[5] The result was a significant increase in prices in particular industries, accompanied by the prohibition of non-licensed suppliers from production, often under threat of strict punishment for patent infringement.[6] A long dispute regarding the efficiency of royal monopoly grants—influenced by the Darcy v. Allen case and Sir Edward Coke—eventually led to strict restraints on the Crown's right to issue licenses. The undesirable effects of diminishing social wealth were discussed, and a new theory of monopolies was created.
Colonial America
Although most aspects of British law were the same in British colonies, laws on monopoly were less clearly defined in America. Therefore, specific versions of both economic development patents and restrictions on patent issuance were enacted. For example, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties[7] from 1641 declared that no monopolies were acceptable except for new inventions that are profitable to the country. As colonial leaders issued legal amendments via charters and relations with Britain deteriorated, the continuous granting of monopolies to English suppliers became a direct cause of American indignation. When England enacted laws[8] enabling domestic merchants across various sectors to sell under a monopoly in the British colonies, colonists protested and established black markets. One well-known protest was the Boston Tea Party, primarily motivated by the British government's monopoly over tea imports and the East India Company's role in it.[9] Continuous efforts to discredit Americans to compete in foreign markets and to secure benefits associated with it led to the American Revolution and the consequent creation of the United States.